POT INVESTIGATORS STRIKE OUT

Sheriff's deputies from Marin County attempted to confiscate records
of pot sales from growers to medical marijuana dispensaries in
Berkeley and Oakland Tuesday, but came up empty-handed, a lawyer for
the dispensaries said.

After leaving the East Bay, the eight investigators planned to execute
a search warrant for digital records at a third dispensary in San
Francisco, called the Divinity Tree, said William Panzer, an attorney
for all three dispensaries.

Brad Senesac, a spokesman for the Berkeley Patients Group on San Pablo
Avenue, said officials there told the deputies they don't keep those
records.

"They never entered the building," Senesac said. "They shook our hands
and left."

Panzer said the same thing happened minutes later at Harborside Health
Center near Jack London Square. The warrant seeks sales information
from six alleged pot growers to the dispensaries.

Panzer said state and local prosecutors are now going after suppliers
of medical marijuana dispensaries, since it is illegal to sell to them
even though it is legal to buy marijuana with a prescription. This is
in the wake of the Obama Administration's remarks that it would back
off on DEA raids at some dispensaries in the state.

Senesac said the deputies probably knew they would come up
empty-handed.

"Most dispensaries don't keep records like that," Senesac said. "It's
all in the brain. You know who your growers are."